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August 27, 2008

crazy travel, crazy training!

I have been so busy I do not even have time to think. I know it's a recurring theme these days but really it is at the top of my mind as I am always racing from one workout, event, etc., to the next.

There is that theme and then there is the I love running theme. I had another killer workout this week, I seriously could not believe myself. I ran 2.8 miles at 6:08 - 5:56 pace, and then ran 2 x 200 as fast as I could, which is not that fast as I am more of a long twitch kind of person. I think my faster one was 38 or 39 seconds. But man, it hurt! Now I am just dying to know how fast the 5k in my sprint next weekend will be. I am thinking about starting out around 6:40 pace if I don't feel too bad. That would be crazy, at this rate I'm thinking about trying to find a regular running 5k race to do this weekend just to see if I can break my post-college PR which I think is just under 21:00. In fact maybe this would be a good idea, if I broke 20:00 I think I would probably have a heart attack I would be so excited. Alison probably knows this, but the only time in life I have broken 20:00 for a 5k was back in my sophmore year of college (Alison's senior year), when she, our friend Laurie, and I ran all our races together. That was so much fun. I still have a picture of us after our big race at NESCACs on my bookcase. I had a bit of a breakthrough after a long, awful winter of injury, and ran all my fastest times - my 5k PR of 19:26 and my 10k PR of 40:55. I have never gotten even close to those times in the intervening 11 years, and I really never thought I would again. But now I am becoming hopeful!

So that was the excitement yesterday. I had a pretty bad swim actually, just felt rough and slow in the water, and I was swimming pretty slow. I am not sure what that was about as on Monday I had one of my best swims yet. We'll see how tonight's swim goes, I am hopeful but not optimistic!

This morning I did a speed bike workout and my heavens was it tough. I am staying at my mom's right now and I really wanted to ride from there so I could pick up dry cleaning on the way to work, so I did. My mom lives in a super hilly area, I do not think there was an inch of flat ground to be found. This meant the downhills were nice but the uphills were absolutely brutal. They just hurt! It was probably a really good workout to do as my A race course is rolling, but it kinda freaked me out to be honest. I am not sure how I'll handle those rollers in a race situation. Hopefully I will have enough adrenaline to carry me!

Right now I am heading off to run and swim and then run 5 million errands. I was in Vegas this past weekend which was fun but exhausting and this weekend I am heading to Southern California, which I think will be really really fun and much less exhausting than Vegas, which is great! I cannot wait to run on the beach!!

Posted by barb at 3:52 PM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2008

The Final Stretch

My A race is four weeks and one day away. Oh my goodness, this is so exciting and nerve wracking and everything!! I have never been in a race where I do not feel that I can easily finish in the top 50% of my age group. What if all the awesome people go, and none of the slow ones do? What if I finish last? What if I can't get my wet suit off? What if I flat out? Now that my training is in the final stages and I am two weeks away from taper, I can see that my nerves are beginning to show. Then again, this bout of anxiety could have been caused by the fact that we had about 5 million cookies, candies, and cake in the office today for a project and birthday celebration. Refined Sugar = Anxious Barb apparently.

Anyway, life is crazy right now. Tomorrow I am leaving for Vegas for a bachelorette party. That means crazy training early in the week, as I will not be doing any brick workouts there. Next Friday I am going to Southern California for a weekend. The day after Labor Day I am moving. Two weeks after that I am a bridesmaid in a wedding, and the week after that is race week! I hardly have time to train but I'm getting it all in (although I might skip a swim this week, although it's a cutback week in swimming so I'm not all that concerned). This week I have been feeling somewhat fatigued, but my workouts have not suffered in speed so I'm okay with it. In fact, I have been feeling pretty good.

On Tuesday I had a running workout at the track and ran 8 x 400m all between 89 and 94 seconds. I was so excited!! My legs felt awful, it was windy, and there was a big group of marathon runners jogging around the track for some reason. I was all prepared to have a bad workout but I just focused on form and mechanics, and got it done. Yesterday I had a bike workout and I thought that was going to be somewhat rough, but I just put my head down, focused on my music (I do these workouts in a state park where there are no traffic lights and hardly any cars), and got it done. And this morning I had a swim speed workout which was tough but awesome. I feel like it is a good thing that I'm getting to a point where I feel fatigue in my arms - it means that I'm hopefully improving from a technique perspective. I had some great 100's and 50's and felt really strong and smooth in the water.

Since I won't be doing my long brick on Saturday, I am leaving in a bit to ride for 2 hours and run for 30 minutes. It's not the exact workout I'm supposed to do but it's just not really possible for me to ride for 3 hours on a day when I have to work. So I am making the executive decision that it's close enough. I may take an early flight back here on Sunday, so I can ride more, but we'll see - the DNC is starting here on Monday so it may be impossible to get on a flight.

Overall I am feeling good and I cannot say enough good things about my coach and generally about heart rate training. I was a skeptic for a long time but I have finally started drinking the Kool-Aid, and I can't believe I didn't before! It is amazing to feel fresh all the time, to know I am putting in hard workouts and yet my legs do not feel destroyed. And to see my times as fast as they were in college, at least in workouts. We'll see how it pays off on race day!

Posted by barb at 2:56 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2008

Bike Woes

I tell you what, I had some messed up bike karma yesterday. I think I must have unknowingly run over a puppy or something. I had noticed on my front tube that part of the valve had come off, which hadn't been a problem but when I tried to pump it up it made a popping noise and very rapidly deflated. I put a new tube in, got that to about 20 psi, and that one deflated too. So I took that one out, put in a third tube, and it worked for about 15 minutes of riding, but then it deflated! I stopped (luckily I was in the park so there were a lot of people, including my friend Michelle, around) and put in another tube, which deflated about as quickly as I could fill it. Then I took one of Michelle's tubes, borrowed some very nice random guy's portable pump, and filled that one. It worked for the rest of the ride which was pretty awesome.

However, it made me very behind in my schedule as I also had a swim planned. I was able to swim 1300 meters after my biking fiasco and before it got kind of dark and creepy out (the indoor pool at my gym is closed for 3 more weeks, so I had to swim outside). It was not a huge swim but it was enough to make my Friday swim manageable with my schedule. Fridays are long swims and with the pool situation (6 lanes for the whole gym, which are occupied the entire time I don't have to be at work on Fridays), I cannot get 4000 meters in at one stretch. I am sure this is not the best way to handle my swims, but I don't think it's the worst either.

This morning I was back at the pool at 6:20 or so for my speed swim. It was so fun!! I did write down my workout wrong - probably a Freudian slip, as I somehow forgot to write '300 Kick' down, and I absolutely hate long kick sets since they take forever. So I only swam 2700 but I felt that I got the meat of the workout in. I did not feel particularly fast when I was doing my 100's, but my splits were excellent for me, so I was pretty happy.

I should also mention yesterday's speed bike workout, which outside of equipment issues and crazy cars, roller bladers, cruiser bikes, etc., went pretty well. I was kind of distraught when I first started and messed up the order of my intervals a little, but I still got it done. It is a bit easier for me to cruise along in my longer intervals which probably means I should go faster. This means I really need to start doing these workouts in the morning again, as it is much less dangerous. Riding along at 26 MPH at peak usage time in the park is just not safe for me or for others. So I guess it's good when you are fast enough to pose a real danger to others, I don't know?!

I am hoping to leave work at a reasonable time tonight as I have a 1:40 ride and a 30 minute run on my schedule. The weather is cooling off really nicely right now - I guess tomorrow it is going to be 60 degress which will probably seem freezing! Then I am heading to Michelle's so we can have dinner, possibly go to a concert, and watch the Olympics. I have been so busy with training that I haven't had much time to watch, but tonight is women's gymnastics which I love. I can't wait!!

Posted by barb at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2008

so sleepy

I am so tired right now I may fall asleep at my desk. That is not good, as I have dinner plans tonight with my brother, his girlfriend, and my sister who is about to go off to college. I am working hard to rally, we will see how it goes. I got up at 5:45 this morning and I must say that there is a huge difference to me between getting up at 5:45 and getting up at 6:00. Every time I wake up before 6:00 I fight a huge fatigue in the afternoon. But you know, today I think it was worth it - I had company on my track workout which was amazing!! My friends Laura and Erin joined in, and it was absolutely great. Even though we don't run the same speed, regrouping with them and chatting every few minutes made the whole workout more fun and less tiring somehow.

And it was a good workout for me. I ran my long interval at 7:00 pace, my medium interval at 6:20 pace, and I am not sure about my short intervals because they are just too hard to gauge. But I felt really good about the 6:20 pace thing, it was a definite improvement over my performance two weeks ago. I am so surprised by how well I am running right now. I just need to translate this into race performance and I will be super excited!!

I also had a killer swim today, in spite of having to share my lane with three different people over the hour or so I was in the water. Including one guy who did his entire workout with fins and paddles. I just do not know what is up with all these people and their gimmicks. I am finally used to swimming a 3000 which is awesome. I swam fast without trying, which is also awesome. And my body felt so good and smooth in the water.

I also had a good weekend of workouts in spite of personal turmoil which I will not get into, and less sleep than I would enjoy, which always makes me grouchy. I really enjoyed my ride so I am considering going to the same location this Saturday even though it is not really all that convenient. Cyclists are all so nice and friendly, it was fun to chat with people while I was riding. I did ride partway with Michelle, but we did get split up a few times, so I was by myself a lot and making conversation wtih strangers a good amount. And on Sunday I ran up in Boulder with friends from my old club, which was awesome. I love running in Boulder, especially with my friends from Running Republic. We did get to see some of the 5430 Long Course race, which made me a little sad actually! I was signed up and decided not to race when my coach said it wouldn't be a good idea. The weather was great, so I was a little bummed not to be able to see how I'd do in a half with decent weather, but I guess I'll just have to wait until Timberman next year to find out!

That is about all the news for today, I am heading to dinner in a few and then tomorrow I will be doing a speed bike workout and an easy run. Should be a good day, I don't have to get up before 6:00!

Posted by barb at 5:17 PM | Comments (1)

August 6, 2008

it's been a strange couple of days

I tell you what, it has just been a weird, strange, bizarre, etc. couple of days for me. Basically nothing has gone down as I expected. Some of this is good, and some of it is bad.

I will start with the good...
- Yesterday's running speed workout. I do not know what speed demons took over, but I was awesome. It was 400's and 800's, and I ran the 400's in 1:31, 1:29, 1:31, 1:28. That is faster than I have run in at least a year, on way less running specific training. The 800's were 3:06, 3:06. Also really awesome!! I think I ran a few 800's pretty close to these times last summer, with a big group of really fast chicks. I felt that yesterday's effort by myself was tougher just because I didn't have someone to follow. I was so excited about this!! It makes me feel like I can definitely run faster in my triathlons. It also makes me think that heart rate training is the best!
- I also had a really nice, mellow run this morning. So we will put that in the good category. And a good swim yesterday, in which I swam 3000 meters and it did not seem that far. I'm finally getting used to swimming a decent amount which is great, it makes me less nervous about my workouts.
- I bought a new car today. I really wanted a Prius but they have a 6 month waiting list, and they are expensive. So I bought a Corolla and you know it is really nice!! It is very pretty on the outside and nice on the inside. And my bike fits inside it, which is great too. I am so happy to have a new vehicle, especially a nice reliable Toyota. I was very sick of my Audi and its premium gasoline and maintenance issues (basically when anything goes wrong with an Audi, it costs a thousand dollars).

The bad:
- After I got the car, I got back to work, picked up a sandwich at the cafeteria, and headed to a staff meeting. And about five minutes in I had to leave, I was experiencing the worst stomach cramps I have ever had. They were so bad that I was laying on the bathroom floor - the public bathroom floor! How gross. I am sure I have a new disease from that experience. I was absolutely positive I was going to throw up. After laying on the floor for a while, I felt better and tried to go back to the meeting. Luckily it ended about 3 minutes later, so I went back to the bathroom and laid on the floor until I felt like I could drive home. I got home and seriously within about 10 minutes I felt absolutely fine. My theory is that I had some bad salami on my sandwich (I know I shouldn't eat salami sandwiches, but at 1:00 pm that is all they have left). I was really stressed out that I would miss my speed bike workout, but since I feel fine now, I think I'm going to give it a try! I was so worried that I was going to puke all over my new car.

I guess overall on the balance it's been a good couple of days!! Now wish me luck please, I would prefer to avoid puking on my bicycle :)

Posted by barb at 4:14 PM | Comments (1)

August 4, 2008

I love swimming!

I can't believe I am titling a blog entry 'I love swimming'. It is so strange and yet so awesome to me. But mostly strange. I am 5'1", I should not love swimming. I should continue to be a sucky swimmer! But alas I am becoming awesome. I am so excited. You might ask why I am so excited about swimming, and I will tell you. Because I had a freaking great swim today!! I swam 2500 meters and it: a) did not feel like it took forever; b) did not feel like I swam a million miles; and c) was super fast. I basically swam a PR in almost every distance and it didn't feel like hard work. I just felt strong and smooth. I am pretty excited for my speed swim this Thursday to see how fast I can go when I am actually pushing hard.

In general I am still obsessively loving my program. I think due to moderating my heart rate, I feel fresh all the time. I constantly wish I had more hours in the day in which to work out, and more workouts on the schedule to do. I think this is how I am supposed to feel, which is great! When I was self-coaching I would often feel pretty run down by the end of the week. Now I am excited for every new week and for my big new workouts.

This weekend was pretty fun from a training perspective. Saturday I did a 2:50 ride/30:00 run brick. I rode up to Golden and up part of Lookout Mountain and back again, just because it's an easy way to get a lot of time and miles in. This coming weekend I only have 2:20 on the schedule so I'll probably go somewhere else, possibly somewhere more flat or rolling. It looks like the elevation profile for the nationals course is rolling so I would like to do more of that. Most of my rides are either totally flat or up a canyon/hill. Anyway back to this past weekend, I did not feel awesome on my transition run but I blame the heat. I started my workout very early but I did not get out to run until around 9:30 and it was already 90 degrees out. I did not feel that bad but it was hard to keep my heart rate in the correct range. I kept going over even though I felt like I was going super slow.

Sunday (yesterday) I ran 1:10 and had a great time. I was able to fit in around 8 miles so I feel pretty good about that. It was getting a bit hot when I finished but not bad at all. I think in fact that today is the last of the really hot days for a while, it is going to be nice. Of course now that I am not doing the 5430 long course the weather will probably be awesome - I already know I had a pretty good wave (third). It will be a little tough not to compete but realistically it won't be that bad. I do not love half Ironmans, especially when they are at altitude! I am thinking about heading up to the expo so I can get my shirt, although I don't know that I would wear the shirt if I didn't finish the race. Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, aside from my sweet swim today, I also rode for 1:25 this morning (yes I am very sleepy right now), and in a bit I will be heading out for a lifting session. I am quite pleased by how fully jacked my arms are looking these days, even though I don't really care for lifting I do feel that the benefits I have gained are pretty great. And with that I think I will leave you all for the day.

Posted by barb at 2:50 PM | Comments (0)